Prayers for The Religion Forum (Ecumenical)

Various and self | some time back | various

[Mad Dawg]

Litany of Humility

Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.

From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being loved, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being extolled, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being honored, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being praised, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being preferred to others, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being consulted, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being approved, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being humiliated, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being despised, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of suffering rebukes, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being calumniated, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being forgotten, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being ridiculed, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being wronged, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being suspected, Deliver me, Jesus.

That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be esteemed more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease,Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be chosen and I set aside, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be praised and I unnoticed, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be preferred to me in everything, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may become holier than I,
provided that I may become
as holy as I should, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

Closing Prayer

Dominicus Gabriel Mariae

O most gracious Lord Jesus:
To redeem an undeserving humanity
You gave up everything you had.

In your mercy, grant us the grace
of despising all things but you
and your love

That we may know the joy
you brought to us
through your dolorous Passion
and Death,

Who live and reign in might and bliss
with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
One God, in everlasting glory.

[Mad Dawg]

Thanks.

Amen to Love.

[xzins]

My pleasure. And I second that amen.

[Alamo-Girl]

Amen.

[boatbums]

Father, I abandon myself ...Into your hands ...need to give myself, to surrender myself ...without reserve, ...

I meditate about this often. My tagline pretty much sums up my goal in life. When you think about it deeply, you realize that we already ARE his. He already IS in control and everything he allows in our lives is for a purpose. The purpose will ALWAYS be for good, though the situation may seem bad.

So, we would all save ourselves so much needless stress and pain if we would only get to that point of total surrender. It is already all his, we just need to realize it in our lives and allow that peace and assurance bathe us in all we do.

All to Jesus, I surrender; All to Him I freely give; I will ever love and trust Him, In His presence daily live.

I surrender all, I surrender all, All to Thee, my blessèd Savior, I surrender all.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Charles de Foucauld

I absolutely love this guy!

One of the most touching thing about him: he died having had virtually no earthly success at all. He made no converts. He attracted no co-workers who stayed more than a couple of months. He lived with, and as, the poorest of the poor, truly loving the Tuareg desert people, only to be shot to death and die almost unnoticed.

And then after years and years, people started to hear his story, people started to take an interest in this deep-souled forgotten man, and now as I understand it there are some 19 or 20 different religious congregations and societies who are ministering to migrants, nomads, transients and landless people (anyone who travels around without a fixed abode, even circus performers I understand) on every continent, for the love of Christ!

"Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies..."

[Running On Empty]

“I am the wheat of Christ—grain for the Lord. “
St. John Chrystostom

[xzins]

Prayer for RF Ping -

Scripture: 3 John 1:14 “I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face. Peace to you. The friends here send their greetings. Greet the friends there by name.”

Thought: Relationship is the seedbed of friendship.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, push me to be an active friend of my fellow Christians.

[Tax-chick]

Thought: Relationship is the seedbed of friendship.

Excellent point.

[Running On Empty]

Oops—that was actually St. Ignatius of Antioch

Thanks for the morning meditation, zxins

Bread for the day

[Alamo-Girl]

Amen!!!

[Mad Dawg]

Relationship is the seedbed of friendship.

This is central, critical, definitive.

One aspect of the Trinity, something at the heart of the wonderful 17th chapter of John is that relationship O(Love) is already fulfilled and perfected within the Godhead, and that we are given the grace to enter the very heart of God by growing in unity with one another.

Someone might read your 'thought' and dismiss it as sort of 'what I learned in kindergarten.'

But in truth it is absolutely central to the Gospel. When God says, "Let there be light," when we say, "Amen! Come Lord Jesus!" we are proclaiming relationship. God Himself is giver, recipient, gift -- Lover, Beloved, and Love. Relationship.

Amen! Come Lord Jesus!

[Running On Empty]

In my parish, in a brief, quiet moment before the priest steps down to give Communion, the choir chants very softly

“God is love and he who lives in love lives in God
God is love and he who lives in God lives in love”

[GOPJ]

Lord Jesus, push me to be an active friend of my fellow Christians.

We are brothers and sisters in Christ - thanks for the prayer, xzins.

[Mad Dawg]

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.
Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor.

Where charity and love are, there is God.
The love of Christ has gathered us into one.

(the rest is left as an exercise for the reader.)

Exultemus, et in ipso jucundemur.
Timeamus, et amemus Deum vivum.
Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero.

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.
Simul ergo cum in unum congregamur:
Ne nos mente dividamur, caveamus.
Cessent iurgia maligna, cessent lites.
Et in medio nostri sit Christus Deus.

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.
Simul quoque cum beatis videamus,
Glorianter vultum tuum, Christe Deus:
Gaudium quod est immensum, atque probum,
Saecula per infinita saeculorum. Amen.

[Running On Empty]

I once heard a beautiful sermon by a Protestant pastor. It was about relationships—
“fulfilled and perfected in the Godhead”, as you have posted here. He ended this great sermon by remarking that the value and beauty of the Sabbath was that on that day God “rested” and that one reason why we were given the Sabbath to rest was to be IN RELATIONSHIP—with Him and with those He has given us to love.

It’s interesting to me how I have discovered—in the frailty of my old age-—that there are some things that I have heard people say that I cannot forget. That, too, is a lesson for all of us: that what we say is important, because someone may remember it for a lifetime.

[xzins]

Googled: Is this it?

Where charity and love are, God is there.
Christ’s love has gathered us into one.
Let us rejoice and be pleased in Him.
Let us fear, and let us love the living God.
And may we love each other with a sincere heart.
Where charity and love are, God is there.
As we are gathered into one body,
Beware, lest we be divided in mind.
Let evil impulses stop, let controversy cease,
And may Christ our God be in our midst.
Where charity and love are, God is there.
And may we with the saints also,
See Thy face in glory, O Christ our God:
The joy that is immense and good,
Unto the ages through infinite ages. Amen.

[xzins]

given the Sabbath to rest was to be IN RELATIONSHIP

Beautiful. Thank you.

[Running On Empty]

Thanks so much for the translation!

This is great

I don’t know Latin and this is the first time I’ve seen the Ubi Caritas in English.

I’m printing it out and putting it in my Liturgy of the Hours.

[xzins]

Just so we’re clear. I did not translate it: I googled the Latin and a link came up that had the English translation.

[Mad Dawg]

Yep That’s it.

In my church we sing it on Maundy Thursday. Pretty good stuff.